Name: Improve Your English Pronunciation: Voiced & Voiceless Consonants
Uploaded: 2022-03-27T02:47:23.000Z
Duration: 16 min 10 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Sentences with would like

Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm. Na-na-na-na. Hi. James from engVid. I would like to

The imperative

help you with a problem you might not even know that you have. Do you know

To-infinitive

what: "voiced" and "voiceless" is? And if you do, do you know how to do the

mechanics of it, produce it, or make sure you're producing it? A lot of

students have a problem with this. They may understand the basic idea: "voices

vibrate", but my lesson today will help you to be able to physically feel it, so

that you know what you should do. And we'll go through a practice session,

using one of the hardest "voiced" or "voiceless" sounds in English. Cool?

Let's go to the board and work it out. Ah, Mister E is being very cool today. I

love it. He's gone Shakespearean on to me. "To be or not to be — that is not

the question. It is actually: To be or not to be voiced or voiceless". So, what

does it mean to be "voiced" or "voiceless"? Now, for some of you,

you're like: "What is he talking about?" And sometimes native speakers watch

this, so this is for you, native speakers; because you do it all the

time, but you don't even know what you're doing. All right? So, if you're

learning English, don't feel so bad; not everybody knows everything, including

me. So, "voiced". Mister E has given us a special holiday-edition shot here or

something, like, this is him when he was a kid. He's beautiful. Hey, man. Look at

that, nice bald head and that. He looks really good with his dress shirt.

So, "voiced". "Voiced" is vibration or vibrates. So, okay, got that. But what's

vibrating? Well, actually your vocal cords; it's right in here — these are

vibrating. And when it's "voiceless", it's just an air movement. (whistles

lightly). A great example of this is the difference between: "p" and "b". When I

say: "p" — "p", "p" — it's actually just air going over the chords; nothing

really happens. But when I say: "b" — "b" — there's a slight vibration of the

vocal cords, and that's the difference between: "p" and "b". All right? Now,

today's lesson isn't to say: I'm going to work on this sound and this one. It's

to help you with the mechanics. I will give you something specific to work on

that will help you that's actually probably... I picked some of the

toughest words for non-English speakers to work on, and you'll see them and

you'll go: "Oh my god. I hate these ones." I'm gonna give that to you in a

second or two. But, quickly, let's go through it. Here's my method to help you

with the mechanics. What sound does a bee make? Duh. "Bzz". Yeah, keep going.

"Zzz". Now, put your hand here. "Zzz". You'll feel that movement. There you go.

That's that vibration I'm talking about. Okay? So, the first thing we want to

look at: What sound does a bee make? Silly, I know; but it's something that's

practical you can play with and notice this.

The second thing I want to do is: Now, put your hand on your throat and say:

"A", "a", "a". You can even say: "e", or: "u", or: "o". Vowel sounds basically

are "voiced", so it will vibrate the vocal cords. Sorry. So, this way: "o" —

you can feel that vibration. And if you do it long enough, you'll know how it

feels, and you'll know how to put the voiced — that's on. I told you I'm here

to help you. Okay? So... so, you can say that. "A" is good one because it's: "a"

— it's the first letter in the alphabet, or any other vowel sound. Step three:

Start with an "a", and then do the voiceless words, and note the

difference. I'll give you an example. If I say: "people", "people" — there's two

"p's" there and nothing — it's dead. Well, not dead. It's not moving. I'm

alive. "People". But if I say: "butterfly", "butter-" — sorry, I should

stop there. You'll notice the difference. Note the difference with:

"people" — no vibration. Okay? Number four is when I want you to actually do

something voiced, like: "butterfly", "butterfly". Note the difference; notice

how there's that vibration. And if you do them together: "people, butterfly" —

you'll go: "Oh, there's a big difference with how my throat works, or the vocal

cords work." Cool? That's a small practice that you can do. Well, actually

what I want you to use when we go to the board in a second, and I give you the

sound of the day you're going to work with. (laughs evilly) (snaps fingers)

Okay. So, I promised to help you with: "voiced" and "voiceless". And just in

case, if I wasn't too clear, what I want you... when I said: "note the

difference" — I wrote that on the board before — it's when we do the: "a" —

we're comparing the "a", what happens with the "a", here — the vibration,

versus the next word we say, and we want to compare the difference. What I'm

getting you to do, actually, is to train your brain to recognize the difference.

Especially when we start comparing the "voiced" and the "voiceless", you should

notice a big difference, and your brain will go: "Got it". And there are two

words especially I wrote on the board that students get confused with because

they almost look the same; and one is a verb and one is the noun. Noun. And just

by spelling, if it wasn't for the extra letter, they could be completely

confused, and that's completely understandable. All right? So, let's go

to the board, and we're going to work on the famous "th" sound — yay — found in

so many English words. Okay? So, we talked about "voiced" is vibration. And

that's why I put, like: "voice — vibrate". Bla. It's that "b" sound.

Right? Here are some words that we can start with. And if you notice, I put:

beginning, middle, and end. And if you're confused why, I'm just saying the

placement of the "th". The vibration will still be there, but it... even

though it moves, the vibration will be there. So, you're gonna notice we're

using words where it starts at the beginning, words where the "th" is in

the centre... and I know there's an "e" here, but it's basically at the end of

Now, what I was explaining to you about: Note the difference or see the

differences — this is the exercise I want you to do. To get some practice,

we're doing this. So, let's do it together. Okay? So, this is one of those

lessons... no, there's not a test, but you get to practice with me. Yes. I'm in

your house, teaching you. We're working together. Ah. Are you excited? I'm

excited. Let's do it. Okay, so first, we'll put our hand here, as I said.

We'll go: "a". Okay? "a". The first word is: "there". Oh. "A", "there". Oh.

Notice how that kind of follows through that: "zzz"? You wouldn't think so, but

there it is. Then we go to next one: "a", "then", "a", "then". Now, you're

going to notice that soft vibration is falling in your hand, and your brain's

going: "I understand". Next one: "a", "weather", "a", "weather". Now, the "w"

makes a bit of a difference, because we have to carry through. We're saying a

sound, then we have to change it. And that's why I did beginning, middle, and

end, so you can notice how it changes. You're going to go: "w", "w", "weath-",

and it's "a". Okay? We're good. Now, let's go here: "a", "either", "a",

"either". And if you're educated: "a"... Oh, sorry. Now... sorry. The first one's

educated. Star means there's two ways of saying this word, but notice that the

vibration doesn't change: "a", "either", "a", "either". In fact, that "e" almost

pushes into it. Okay? So, you'll hear people say: "either" or "either" — the

argument is educated people will say: "either", and a lot of people say:

"either". "Either you or me"; "either you or I". And you can almost hear a

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Improve Your English Pronunciation: Voiced & Voiceless Consonants

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